2018 FRC Controls Software

Beta Test Report

Environment

• Visual Studio Code
• FRC/WPLIB plug-ins
• CTRE plug-ins
• NI Suite Updates
• Did not test Kauai Labs plug-ins as we no longer use the NavX]
• 7 Laptops used for testing
• Utilized 2 Tile Runners (software test robots with RoboRio running a CAN TalonSRX-based drive and various sensors)
• Didn’t get to the point of testing with previous competition robots.

Installation

• Nice that everything installs in order, so screensteps should be easier
• Some post installation setup (e.g. manage vendor libraries)
• Right click under build.gradle and select manage vendor libraries. It will allow you to select the installed CTRE (and KauaiLabs extensions)

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Installation

• Early on there were many installation issues:
• 7 laptops and many differences in the installed environment
• Picked up other environments which caused issues with Intellisense and/or Gradle builds
• RobotC used for Demonstration Robots
• Visual Studio C# environment used with hero board development
• Other C++ environments
• Latest installation seemed to go smoother, however, it wasn’t published until after the holiday break, so limited testing.

Installation

• Learn how to modify build.gradle
• Early on, it would pick up other environments by default causing weird build and intellisense errors. Examples:
• Indicate it couldn’t find a header, but could open the definition
• Editor would indicate a header wasn’t found, but building would find it
• Many laptops had environments for our demonstration robots:
• RobotC for VEX-based robots
• Visual Studio with C# for HERO board-based robots
• These environments caused dependencies to be put in build.gradle that were wrong
• Refreshing the environment would re-add these
• Many times this would occur multiple times an hour

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Installation Fixes

• Provided in early December which broke the Vendor library integrations
• This wasn’t fixed until mid to late December
• From the limited testing after that point, the Intellisense/Build issues seemed to be fixed (not all laptops tested this as we were on Christmas break by that point).

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build.gradle

sources.cpp {

source {

srcDir 'src/main/cpp'

// we use a thirdparty opensource library for parsing

// xml files, so we put it in a different folder, so it

// needs to get built

srcDir 'src/main/thirdparty'

// Restrict what files get built (default is everything)

include "**/*.c"

include "**/*.cc"

include "**/*.cpp"

include "**/*.cxx"

​

}

​

build.gradle

exportedHeaders {

srcDir 'src/main/include'

// Add xml parsing includes

srcDir 'src/main/thirdparty'

if (includeSrcInIncludeRoot) {

srcDir 'src/main/cpp'

}

// restrict what header files are exported

include "**/*.h"

include "**/*.hpp"

include "**/*.hxx"

}

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Visual Studio Code

• Basic functions are either keyboard shortcuts or buried on a large command palette (I was having flashbacks to learning LabView)
• Good for power users
• Harder for less experienced users) or is buried on a large command palette.
• Extensions might help (didn’t explore)

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Other Editors

• We didn’t get to explore other editors, but this may be something we explore before kick-off
• Chief Delphi had a thread about using Eclipse as an editor and VS Code to set up and build projects
• JetBrains CLion’s latest version supports C++ Gradle projects

Code Changes

• Most includes were deprecated are replaced by once that had frc/ in front
• Instead of:
• #include <AnalogInput.h>
• #include <frc/AnalogInput.h>
• New methods for adding auton choices to the smart dashboard.
• Overall, getting existing code to compile was pretty straightforward once the intellisense issues were resolved (before this you were never sure if it was finding the includes or not)
• Iterative Robot was deprecated in the latest build
• Switched to timed robot

Compiling

• Overall, it seemed to take longer
• Once it was built and incremental changes were being made, the times improved and probably surpassed the previous environment.
• Didn’t have the unexplainable 3 errors that were always present when a project was opened.

Imaging Hardware

• CTRE’s has a new tool for setting IDs, loading Firmware, etc.
• Can load firmware on all devices of the same type at once (much faster and cleaner)
• Latest update had some more diagnostic tools, but we haven’t had a chance to try it yet
• NI
• RoboRio Imaging tool initially gave errors
• Loaded LabView on the computer fixed the problem
• Other teams also reported problems, but some teams did not (seems like a random error)
• Latest version doesn’t feed the watchdog properly when a motor is stopped, so you need to send 0.0 each loop